Oral Sex Leads to Intercourse Among Teens, Study Suggests

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A "birds and the bees" talk with your kids isn't complete without
a discussion of oral sex, according to a new study that found a
connection between oral sex and old-fashioned intercourse.

The three-year survey found that teens who had oral sex by the
end of ninth grade were at the
highest risk of having sexual intercourse during high school.
These teens had a 25-percent chance of having intercourse by the
end of ninth grade and a 50-percent chance by the end of 11th
grade.

Meanwhile, teenagers who did not have oral sex until the end of
11th grade had only a 16-percent chance of having intercourse by
the end of that school year.

Health care providers, parents and educators should directly
address oral sex and its risks with teens, according to study
researcher Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a professor of
pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco.

"I see most of the health policies out there and guidelines
for preventive services talking about sex generally, but they do
not specify oral sex. That is an important distinction because
teens don't consider oral sex to be sex, and many are not aware
of the risks involved," Halpern-Felsher said.

"Our study demonstrates that through its relationship with
intercourse, oral sex contributes to the total risk associated
with sexual activity among teens, including sexually transmitted
diseases and pregnancy ," said Anna Song, also a study
researcher and an assistant professor of psychological sciences
at the University of California, Merced.

The researchers followed more than 600 students at two
northern California high schools from the ninth grade through the
end of 11th grade. The study is published online by the
journal, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and it
will also appear in the March 2011 print issue.

About 4 in 10 never–married U.S. teenagers ages 15–19 have had
sexual intercourse at least once, according to a Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention report released in June. [ 42% of
U.S. Teens Have Had Sex ]

Risky sexual behavior among teens was also reported in a
study of more than 7,000 New York City adolescents published
online Oct. 25 in the Journal of Pediatrics. Nearly 9 percent of
females and nearly 4 percent of males had both male and female
sex partners, the research found. And these teens with both-sex
partners indicated a marked prevalence of dating violence and
forced sex, along with sexual behaviors that could put them at
risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, the
researchers reported.